Las Vegas Marathon...a 1st

"Don't give up, don't ever give up. That's what I'm going to try to do every minute that I have left...." a quote from Jimmy Valvano in his famous speech on ESPN many years ago. When I reflect back on this past weekend and the Las Vegas Marathon this saying encapsulates Timmy Picciott's attitude, conviction and overall performance. When Timmy asked me to help pace him for this event I gladly agreed, not really appreciating what responsibility that I was going to take on. As I have often said, as you grow older there are very few "firsts" for most people. This weekend however I experienced several "firsts". On Saturday I ran the Death Valley Trail Marathon...a first...On Sunday I ran the Vegas Marathon with Brian, Francisco and Timmy...another first....and on Sunday evening I was able to pace Timmy who had never ran or attempted a marathon, albeit, and wanted to finish in under 4 hours....a heady task by any measure.

The marathon gun went off at 4PM PST. Timmy, Francisco and I were in corral #3, which was for runners attempting to finish with times around 3:45. With 44,000 runners, the course was jammed packed and not particularly friendly for those runners wanting to achieve a PR. When the gun went off we tried to manage our overall pace for the first 13 miles at an 8:45/min/mile pace. We actually came in at 8:40 for the first half of the race. I knew that we'd need to build a bit of a cushion...and this paid dividends when the half marathoners merged with the marathoners on the course and brought our pace to a screeching halt. It forced us to essentially run on the side walks and zig zag through the crowds for the remaining 13 miles, requiring a lot more energy to be expended. Overall hydration was good for the two of us as was nutrition through at least mile 17. It was at this point that Timmy started showing signs of fatigue, which is normal for a marathon. I decided that he needed more glycogen (gel packs) and water as he was laboring quite a bit and losing a lot through sweating. I had him double up on gel packs and began getting him water at every aid station as he continued to run, I'd grab water and catch back up with him. This seemed to work. He took a tumble somewhere around mile 16. Between mile 19 and 20 he took another fall, this time not so graceful and cramped up in the process. Admittedly I was more than a little concerned about his ability to finish the race in under 4 hours. At mile 22 we needed to average a 10 minute mile pace to the finish....I stretched the truth a bit and told him that we needed to average 9:15's. At this juncture, the goal was to focus only on grinding through the next mile. I told him that he was going to be REALLY pissed off at himself if he finished in 4:02 and needed to focus and just knock out each mile. This seemed to work...although time was not our friend at this point and he began to slip from miles 22-24. I knew that once we got to mile 24 that he'd begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel and there is something that "clicks" in a runners mind that provides a great lift. At our current pace we were going to finish between 3:57 - 4:01...it was hard to tell as I was using my watch which was the unofficial time and there is always a difference between clocked time and watch time, so I was concerned. As we approached mile 25 my watch said 3:48...meaning we had 12 minutes to finish the last 1.2 miles. I knew that the last mile was going to be "easy", relatively speaking. There is something that happens, mentally, physically and emotionally that carries a runner through the last mile. It was actually the last 2/10's of a mile that Timmy shifted into another gear and I decided to film it on my IPhone and take it all in. When he crossed the finish line the race clock said 4:01...and I knew that because we had begun in corral #3 that our official time was probably 3-4 minutes under the 4:01. I was thinking, oh man...Timmy probably saw that clock and figured he'd missed his sub 4 hour marathon goal. I managed to find him and show him my watch, which I stopped as he crossed the finish line in 3:58....a remarkable achievement.

The night was cold and a bit windy and we grabbed the heat shields, some water, our finisher medals and had a photo snapped to capture the moment before heading back to the hotel to hook up with Brian and Francisco. Brian finished the half marathon with a time of a little over 2 hours...which was pretty sporty and in the top 1/3 of all participants. Francisco finished the marathon just about 15 minutes after Timmy and I, which was a great time given the fact that he'd run the Death Valley Trail Marathon the day before with me a few other friends from Texas and Colorado. The Vegas marathon was simply a great experience shared with good friends and great results. To see Timmy bonk at mile 20 and pull himself out of it to finish in under 4 hours was nothing short of impressive. He never gave up on his goal that day. He persevered and achieved his objective against all odds. To share that with him, Brian and Francisco made for a pretty special day. Hopefully there are many more of those to come. I want Timmy to think now about putting a 2.4 mile swim and a 112 mile bike ride in front of a marathon...wrap your mind around that and you have the Ironman experience. Lot's of work to do for the young bull...but for the time being he should enjoy this accomplishment...and as a pacer i will do the same.....Cheers!! PT

Death Valley Trail Marathon

The alarm went off at 5:30AM at the Furnace Creek Ranch "Resort" in Death Valley, Francisco, Andy and I rolled out of the rack and began getting dressed for the 26.2 mile trail run through canyons of Death Valley. Francisco, checked his email and an hour earlier a message had been sent out by Environ Sports the event organizer canceling the race......not cool. This event is open to the 1st 300 racers that enter. The average trail runner doesn't usually run this race, but instead it is made up of some pretty hard core dudes. So canceling this event due to the "weather" was going to make for an interesting conversation at race command at the 6:15AM meeting. The weather on this Saturday December 3, 2011 was about 48F, sunny with a good breeze. Earlier in the week California and parts of Nevada had experienced the Santa Ana winds that got up to over 120MPH. On this morning we were told that the wind gusts were up to at least 70MPH at the summit of the climb on the run and throughout the canyons were going to be challenging, with sand and dust blowing...neither of which are good for the lungs or eyes. It was official the race was canceled, there were a lot of very unhappy people that had traveled from all around the world to race. We collected our race tee's and gear and grabbed some breakfast, at which point in time Team Honey Badger began to organize the 2011 Death Valley Bandit Run. After all, Honey Badger don't give a shit he just does what he wants and today the Team HB was going to race DV dammit! Approximately 50 racers gathered at the entrance of Titus Canyon. Nancy and Ken, previous finishers of the DVTRM knew the course and had mapped a 13.1 mile out and back, which took us to the summit of just past Titus canyon at about 5,500 feet of elevation. We were warned about the high winds so we bundled up. We also all grabbed water bottles to drop along the course. So with warm gear, plenty of water and nutrition we began the 12 mile hike to the summit.

The weather was actually looking like to be a picture perfect day as we began our hike up through the canyon. It was sunny and about 50F, however, very windy. As we made our way up through the canyon the wind began to pick up and at about mile 5 it began to howl. With our heads down we pushed forward till the wind chill factor got the better of me and I decided to break from the group and run up the mountain. My strategy was to run the shady parts and walk fast in the sunny parts. This walk run strategy worked actually quite well. At about mile 9 I was hit by a gust of wind that ripped off my underarmor stocking hat, my visor and sun glasses off of my face. The wind gust hit with such force as I was running that it stood me up straight and pushed me back 4 or 5 steps from a RUN! It was at this point I thought, uh oh...this is why the race was canceled and we haven't even made it to the summit and the more wind exposed areas of the course. Fortunately, this was the only time that the wind gusts were that strong. Average wind speeds for the day I'm guessing were 35-40MPH. It was a punishing run, but thank God for the sun, otherwise the day could've ended short for us. I made it to the summit before the rest of the group and ran down the back side of the mountain to get in a full 13.1 miles on the out so that I could log exactly 26.2 miles. Met up with the rest of the group at the summit and snapped a few pics before the 12 mile descent back to the finish.

It took us about 5.5 hours to complete the run, however, there was a lot of stopping and it was a run that was "enjoyable" as opposed to a "race" per se. We were able to get our finishers medals at race HQ earlier that and today we earned it. We made it back to our vehicles and then sped off back to Vegas to get registered for the Vegas Rock n Roll Marathon tonight....the last race of the year. Brian and Timmy made it into Vegas and were awaiting our arrival so that we could go out and grab some dinner, which we did at Red Square at Mandalay Bay. Going to chill out today, watch some football at the sports book and bet a few bucks to keep the day interesting. Cheers!